23-10-16 PHOTOS: Exton

SEPTA's Exton Station on the R5 Thorndale portion of the old PRR Main Line is arguably the most important station west of Paoli. The station is served by both SEPTA and Amtrak, and was recently upgraded with high level platforms and a new station building. With service steadily expanding in the 21st century and a vintage PRR signal location adjacent to the parking lot I made the effort to stop by in the fall of 2023 where I generated this set of photos ( mirror ), which also includes a bunch of Baltimore area MARC and light rail photos.

New rebuilt Exton station features two high level platforms and a station building with a waiting area and rest rooms. The new amenities opened in 2018 replacing low level platforms with a mini-high for ADA access. For years crews on the line used the concept of time consuming ADA process at Exton to cover up for small delays that may have been their own fault. The magnitude of ADA-linked delays may have actually accelerated the high level platform project.

The parking lot serving the westbound platform is sandwiched between the PRR Main Line proper and the Low Grade Extension of the Trenton Cutoff that was built around 1906 to extend the alternate freight route from the original junction at Glendale to Thorndale. This extension was abandoned around 1980 as Conrail discontinued electric operation and through freight left The Main Line, however its impressive right of way is still intact.

To the west one can see the famous Whitford Flyover where the Low Grade Extension crosses the Main Line. The SEPTA Whitford Station is located under the flyover and due to its close proximity to Exton and much less parking it sees substantially less ridership. The 1981 construction of Exton was also instrumental in the demise of R3 service to West Chester. With 635 parking spaces, the city of West Chester fell within the new station's driving catchment and offered travel time to Philly that was 30-60 minutes faster than old curvy R3 with its many stops and 40mph top speed. To this day the presence of Exton is the largest barrier to SEPTA West Chester service restoration.

In the western direction one finds the Milepost 27 intermediate signal location looking towards Paoli. At Exton, the center track #2 is only used by the daily regional freight to Coatsville and a few SEPTA deadheads running in to the rear of the SEPTA yard and Frazer.

A westbound R5 Thorndale arrives at Exton. The station has seen a roller coaster of service patterns over the last 30 years. In 1990 most SEPTA service ended at Paoli with some continuing to Parkesburg, supplementing Amtrak Keystone service that also served all the stations west of Paoli. In 1996 SEPTA cut back service to Downingtown, but also moved its yard to Frazer, making Malvern the final stop of regular "Paoli" trains. At this point Amtrak dropped service to Whitford and Malvern. In 1999 the R5 was extended to its current terminus at Thorndale.

There wasn't much train traffic while I was getting my signal photos, but I did spot this Red Tailed Hawk scanning for prey.

Jumping back down to Baltimore, hI caught CSX ET44AC #3252 and #3262 along with AC4400 #237 between them stopped short of the Hollins Ferry Road crossing. A special "Crossing Indicator" signal informs the crew that a route is lined through Zepps Bridge to avoid blocking the crossing.

 

23-10-07 PHOTOS: Ohio 251

Starting in 2021 I initiated a side quest to get photos of all of the PRR Position Lights on the lower end of the Cleveland Line between Rochester, PA and Yellow Creek, OH. This line provides an alternate routing between Alliance, OH and Conway Yard and was cobbled together from a mash up of older PRR lines with a majority of the miles being unsignaled territory. However the eastern portion was once the PRR's double track line down the Ohio River and because dangerous through cargo can be sent via the primary Fort Wayne Line, the eastern Cleveland Line is PTC exempt. This means that it's single direction ABS position lit signaling system has survived largely intact. In October 2023 I completed my mission to document all of the vintage signals and once against stopped off at Conway Yard to get some train content for the people who like that. The full set of photos can be found here ( mirror ).

The first stop was in Wellsville, OH, 22 miles from the start of the Cleveland Line at CP-ROCHESTER. The westbound color light mast was installed when CP-YELLOW CREEK was re-signaled.

The second stop was at milepost 19 in East Liverpool, OH where one can get a sense of the priority NS gives this line as some of the rail dated from the 1940's.

The third and final location was at milepost 16 in the town of East End where I saw this little guy enjoying the morning sun.

Heading back past Conway Yard I passed by NS GP33ECO #6726 with road slug #659 near CP-FREEDOM.

Also working the west end of the yard was a sibling set with #6730 and slug #660.

Towards the middle of the yard was GP40-2 #3055 and road slug #751.

There was all sorts of neat stuff in the power storage track near the shoppe complex. This included SD70M-2 #2776, C44-9W #9738, SD70ACU #7269 along with GP40-2 #3056, SD40E #6334, high hood GP38-2 #5244 and one of 5 GP59ECO's #4655.

Upon reaching the EAST CONWAY overlook, I was just in time to catch a full length manifest train shoving westbound into one of the Conway Yard receiving tracks. Power on the opposite end consisted of NS AC44C6M #4231 and ES44AC #8160.

23-09-09 PHOTOS: Portland Steel Bridge

Here in the second part of my 2023 trip to Portland, Oregon I return to downtown to take a walk across the famed Steel Bridge, used by both Amtrak and the MAX light rail alike. I also get some additional photos of Union Station, the Portland Streetcar and the MAX light rail system. You can check out Part 1 here and the full set of Steel Bridge photos here ( mirror ).

Opening in 1912, the Steel Bridge is not only the second oldest operating vertical lift bridge in the United States, but also the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world. It carries road and Portland MAX light rail traffic on its upper deck and main line railroad traffic on the lower (with pedestrians on both). It is located just east of Union Station and was likely part of VC tower's span of control. It's actually a common misconception that downtown Portland sits on the Columbia River, when in fact it is on a tributary, the Willamette.

The bridge carries the MAX Red, Blue, Green and Yellow lines, with flat junctions at each end. Below MAX SD660 #309 on a Yellow routing diverges onto the North-South downtown alignment at the western junction.

Here SD660 LRV's #311 and #304 taking a green line routing into downtown at the west end of the double deck Steel Bridge.



Here SD660 #303 and #225 on a Red routing take the opposite path towards the east-west downtown alignment.

The Steel Bridge has a two lane truss containing both MAX tracks and two single lane wings on the side for road traffic.

The bridge is just downstream from Portland Pacific Grain Terminal.

MAX SD660 #313 on a Blue routing approaching the bridge from the east.

MAX SD660 #252, in a 1980's retro paint scheme, sits in front of the Portland Trailblazers' arena at the Rose Quarter station just prior to entering east bridge jct.

Directly east of the Steel Bridge is EAST PORTLAND interlocking where the route to the passenger station splits from the Union Pacific Portland Sub. While there I caught this Union Pacific light engine move with ES44AC's #8114 and #7786.

EAST PORTLAND interlocking also functions as Portland Union Stations turning wye and every day Amtrak Train 28, the Portland section of Amtrak's eastbound Empire Builder Train 8, goes for a spin in order to head back west out of the station to reach the BNSF Columbia River route on the north bank. Train 28 consists of coaches, a sleeper and the sightseer lounge/cafe car, which will join with Train 8 in Spokane on the midnight after departure. Today, Train 28's power consisted of a single ALC-42 Charger, #310.

23-09-08 PHOTOS: Portland MAX

Over the years I've managed to at least put a toe in all of the major West Coast population centers, many more than once and for significant periods of time, however I had never gotten the opportunity to visit Portland beyond a 20 minute train-to-bus transfer as part of a Coast Starlight bus bridge in 2014. This year I finally managed to put a real trip together with two solid chunks of railfanning. The first, featured here, involves the trip in from the airport via MAX light rail and wandering around Union Station before heading west of the city to my final destination. The second part will cover both ends of the city's iconic Steel Bridge as well as the return trip to the airport. You can view the first set of photos here ( mirror ).

Starting things off on Southwest Airlines, I encountered the Hawaiian and New Mexican heritage units at BWI and Chicago Midway respectively.

Unfortunately the MAX Airport Line was under reconstruction so my first experience with the light rail was boarding a TriMet shuttle bus to the Gateway Transportation Center.

To reach Union Station I would need to catch a Green Line train in from Gateway, as the Red and Blue line trains use a different alignment through downtown. While known for its boxy Siemens SD660 LRV's #236, in recent years TriMet has been ordering SD70 and SD700 LRV's like #402.

My train downtown would feature Portland 300-series SD660 #320. While the rolling stock is set up for a look ahead view, I later discovered that the default behavior by most operators was to deploy a curtain and block it.

With the first segments built in the late 1987, MAX is one of the few North American rail systems with left hand mounted signals. On the dedicated rights of way signaling is a basic ABS/ATS setup with speeds up to 55mph between stations.

MAX uses BNSF style speed restriction signs including a harsh 20mph through stations.

23-09-02 PHOTOS: Doswell

As the supply of interesting signaling in the northeast dries up, I have been having to turn my attention south to the state of Virginia. The CSX route between Washington, DC and Richmond, VA fortunately has a number of Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac era signaling from before it was purchased by CSX in 1992 and after learning that the notable Doswell, VS bracket mast was under threat of replacement I schedule a third RF&P related trip in the summer of 2023, the previous two having been to the Milford and Fredericksburg areas. You can find the full set of these new photos here ( mirror ).

The first stop of the day was at the Coleman's Mill intermediate signal location, 29.5 miles from Richmond. I arrived with my friend in time to catch Amtrak Train 88 with P42DC #54 leading.

We then ran express to Doswell, VA where the famed bracket mast was still standing along with its intended replacement. Typically CSX would have replaced the now disfavored bracket configuration with a cantilever, but because the signaling logic was not in need of replacement and the location of the signal is constrained by adjacent tracks, a new bracket mast was ordered.

Doswell is a significant interchange point and yard for the Buckingham Branch railroad which operates the former C&O Blue Ridge route between Richmond and Clifton Forge, VA. Two of its locomotives, GP40-3 #12 and GP38-2 #17, were standing adjacent to the bracket mast.

Doswell's other big attraction is HN tower, the classic RF&P station and the C&O Blue Ridge route diamonds.

The diamonds are the real deal and not the low maintenance flange riding type.

The RF&P was one of the better resourced railroads in the former Confederate South and many of its all brick towers survive today with. HN tower features such PRR quality elements such as copper cladding, an air plant for pneumatic switches and a bay window.

The former joint RF&P / C&O station still stands and houses Buckingham Branch offices.

I was wondering why so many railfans were hanging around the Doswell diamonds, when southbound Amtrak Palmetto Train 89 appeared with ALC-42 Charger #329 leading on what was apparently one of the first uses of this locomotive type out of Washington, DC.